Compositions that can be used to condition hair are well known. Hair conditioning compositions are intended to leave hair manageable, soft, and shiny. Manageability is manifested as ease of combing in the wet and dry states, as well as preventing hair “fly-away” in the dry state. Most hair conditioning compositions are applied to hair when wet, usually as an after-treatment following the shampooing process. More recently, two-in-one conditioning shampoos have been developed which provide cleansing and conditioning of the hair with a single composition. Both two-in-one shampoos and after-treatment conditioners are usually rinsed off after being allowed to remain in contact with the hair for a brief period of time, and hence, are referred to in the art as “rinse off” type compositions. While the hair conditioning compositions of the present invention may be used as a rinse-off product, they are particularly intended to be “leave-on” product, that is, one which is applied to the hair in either wet or dry state, and is not subsequently rinsed off. Such leave-on products are typically applied to the hair from a pump-type spray dispenser in a form ranging from mist to a conical spray and finally to a jet stream. The most desirable spray pattern, from the point of view of product efficacy, is a conical spray pattern.
Although leave-on conditioners can be clear, homogeneous (single-phase) products, more efficacious conditioners typically are emulsions (two-phase) comprising a dispersion of conditioning agents such as quaternary ammonium compounds with or without fatty alcohols and volatile/non-volatile silicones suspended in an aqueous medium. Therefore, to maintain the efficacy of these products over a period of time the compositions should be physically stable, that is, no phase separation of the dispersed and the continuous phases should occur. Additionally, the composition should have a viscosity low enough to permit its application from a spray dispenser in a conical spray pattern.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide a conditioning composition that is in the form of physically stable emulsion.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an emulsion that can be sprayed from a pump dispenser having a conical spray pattern.
In the present invention, it has been surprisingly found that combining a non-ionic surfactant with a non-ionic polymer can provide both enhanced physical stability and a conical spray pattern to a dispersion containing a cationic conditioning surfactant and a silicone conditioning compound.
Patents and patent applications which are related to the field of the invention are as follows:
WO 99/39684 discloses a hair conditioning or detangling compositions, which could be a sprayable product, comprising a dispersion of cationic conditioning compound and a silicone compound suspended in an aqueous medium and optionally comprising components such as glycols or polyols, surfactants and fatty alcohols.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,192,862 discloses a hairspray product having improved hair-holding properties. The hairspray composition comprises, as is usual, a solution of a hairspray resin in a suitable solvent, but to improve the holding power there is also included a minor amount of a drag reducing agent which is soluble in the solvent for the hairspray resin. The drag reducing agent is present in an amount such that the weight ratio of the hairspray resin to the drag reducing agent is 10,000 to 2:1. The drag reducing agent amounts to less than 0.3% by weight of the composition.
JP 10235238 discloses an aerosol container for a hair care cosmetic which has an injection nozzle and which develops a conical spray pattern of predetermined length and wetting diameter.